Palace woe continues

Pardew is very popular at Selhurst Park and fans have memories of his successful period as a player here. He reached the 1990 FA Cup final, many Palace fans' proudest moment, while he impressed when taking charge as a manager midway through last season.

It's a good job he built up that goodwill, however, otherwise there would be serious calls for him to be dismissed.

Palace are in the FA Cup semifinals, but they haven't won a league game since before Christmas. It's a staggeringly bad run although Pardew will be mightily relieved that it is unlikely to prove fatal. There are some truly terrible teams in this season's Premier League cut adrift at the bottom, in Aston Villa, Newcastle and Sunderland, but this is nevertheless an extremely worrying spell for Palace.

Pardew experienced something similar a couple of seasons ago in charge of Newcastle, when his side played extremely well before Christmas and then dropped off. It's difficult to explain precisely why. He doesn't work his side particularly hard physically. It could be a simple case of players becoming disillusioned with his man-management skills.

Palace weren't terrible on Saturday against the best side in the division. Bolasie was lively, while Mile Jedinak remains excellent at patrolling the midfield zone.

Too many players underperformed, though. Souare was substituted at half-time because he was being terrorised by Mahrez. Emmanuel Adebayor was also sacrificed, having been invisible.

But perhaps the biggest problem is Yohan Cabaye. Arguably the signing of last summer and outstanding in the first few months of the campaign, he struggled to influence the game, with Pardew moving him from the top of the midfield trio to a deeper role, and then back again, in attempt to get him on the ball.

Palace supporters are inevitably looking forward to Wembley but the players can't afford to take their eye off the league just yet.

Source : ESPN